MNsure's early woes fixed and site is stable, CEO tells congressional panel

MNsure's rollout was rocky last October, but Scott Leitz told a congressional panel he took immediate action after he became interim chief executive in December. Software problems have been resolved and call center wait times came way down by the time open enrollment closed Monday, he said.

MNsure is in the process of selecting a lead vendor to further address software problems with the goal of making future open enrollment periods a better experience for consumers, he added.

More than 95 percent of those who have bought insurance through the exchange have already paid and MNsure won't need additional state or federal funding, he said.

Leitz was among several state-run exchange chiefs called to Washington by the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform. The panel's majority Republicans called the hearing to look into what they described as "Obamacare's Problem-Filled State Exchanges."

They were eager to cast a spotlight on the problems Minnesota, Oregon, Hawaii, Maryland, California and Massachusetts all experienced during the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Those states all set up their own exchanges rather than relying on the federal website, and each encountered difficulties.

Maryland's exchange is so dysfunctional that the state is ditching its technology and adopting Connecticut's. And Oregon's exchange website is unusable.

Leitz faced fairly light questioning, confirming to lawmakers that people responsible for MNsure's initial problems were no longer on the payroll.

After the hearing, he smiled when asked if he had expected more questions from the committee.

When asked whether he expected to testify before Congress again, Leitz offered a diplomatic version of, "I hope not."

"We hope that the success that we've had in making progress with MNSure has satisfied the committee but certainly we will take seriously any requests from the committee in the future."